Construct Validation of a German Version of the Word Completion Task for Aggression

The word completion task (WCT) has become a useful measure of aggressive cognition in aggression research. Even though many studies have successfully shown increases in aggressive word completions after aggression inducing interventions, the WCT has not been formally validated. The present study set out to fill this gap by testing the construct validity of a newly developed German version. In addition to the task itself, we also developed a new scoring formula that goes beyond the mere proportion of aggressive solutions in that it also considers the number of alternative solutions and the word frequencies. 88 participants completed the WCT as well as a selection of well-known and validated aggression measures. We found significant correlations between WCT scores and trait aggression (Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire) as well as verbal response tendencies in provocative social encounters (Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Test), with the former pertaining to the new developed WCT score only. Hence, a first step in validating the WCT as an aggression measure was made and the results further suggest that using the new scoring formula might be beneficial when it comes to the assessment of trait aggression. Contrary to our hypotheses, we could not demonstrate relationships between the WCT and state aggression.